Crucifixion? Gee, Pass the Popcorn

Matt Grills

I dread seeing “The Passion of the Christ.” I don’t expect it to be anti-Semitic. I don’t expect it to be too violent or gory for my tastes. I don’t expect to be annoyed by the film’s foreign dialogue.

Simply put, I don’t want to see “Passion” because I harbor a deep fear that I will walk away changed. And, like any honest person will admit, I despise the idea of changing. Minus a dated wardrobe and a couple of disgusting habits, what’s so wrong with me?

That’s my problem with the movie, and the main problem critics have with it. Oh, I know, the Anti-Defamation League and the media are bellyaching over the possibility that “Passion” might cause those crazy, violent Christians to take to the streets and start beating Jews with clubs, shouting, “Christ-killer!” That’s not completely out of the realm of possibility – I give it a probability of maybe 0.00004 percent.

Accusations of anti-Semitic overtones, though, are not the real reason behind the huge backlash against Mel Gibson’s biblical epic. The film’s detractors aren’t expressing their distaste for “Passion” as much as they are expressing their distaste for the Gospels. They are sickened by the idea that the film might cause millions of Christians to become more serious about their faith, and everyone knows that nothing is more offensive than a “Jesus freak” running around trying to “save” others. And, God help us all, isn’t that what this movie will do? Get Christians whipped up into a faith-sharing frenzy?

Worse, “Passion” might cause a few non-Christians to, well, believe. Then we’ll have even more Christians on our hands, telling people about Jesus’ love and how they should repent of their supposed sins and how Jesus is the only way to heaven. That won’t help establish a more “tolerant” America, one in which we all should be surrendering our respective religions to the greater state religion of “diversity.”

Damn that Mel Gibson. He just had to go make a faith-affirming movie that includes lines quoted directly from the Gospels, including one particular line that could, to some uneducated ears, sound anti-Semitic. Why doesn’t “Mad Max” follow Hollywood’s lead and turn out some cinematic work of genius that portrays Christians as stupid and insults all that Catholics regard as holy? Maybe a film about a promiscuous gay priest, or one with Alanis Morissette playing God. Now that’s using your freedom of self-expression. That’s art.

“The Passion of the Christ,” on the other hand – well, it should be under investigation as a hate crime against Jews.

For all the screaming and crying, you’d think Gibson himself is rounding up Americans, bussing them to theaters and strapping them into seats by the thousands. Here’s an idea for the brain trust: if the idea of the movie offends you, don’t see it. That’s what you tell us when we protest films like Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers,” a movie alleged to have more flesh than a Super Bowl halftime show and a brother and sister who sleep together in the nude.

Wait, you say you’re afraid “Passion” might incite violence against Jews? Mmm hmm. And “Showgirls” made me want to be a stripper. What is wrong with America? We award movies glorifying lesbianism, adultery and other sexual perversions, and then along comes a film about a man who chose to die for mankind’s sins. Quick, cover your kids’ eyes!

Critics are terrified of “Passion,” and rightly so. Like the Gospels, it is based on an unsettling premise: people are sinners, every one, and God demands that a price be paid for their sins. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay that price. Heavy stuff.

Whether you believe it true or not, the story of Jesus has impacted our world unlike any other in history. Two thousand years later, it continues to win adherents. “Passion” may not have the power of a home video shot at Golgotha, but it does offer an amazingly realistic picture of an event on which billions of men and women base their lives.

I’m one of those billions, hence my anxiety about seeing the film. It’s not every day that I’m confronted with the bloody reality of Jesus’ death on a cross. Sure, I believe it happened, but you think I’m going to be comfortable watching it happen? Yeah, I think I’ll pass on the Milk Duds.

Why go, if I’m so reluctant for the film to “change” me? I guess you could say I’m an old-fashioned kinda guy who realizes that not every feeling and instinct can be trusted. I certainly don’t find it easy to believe in Jesus, but don’t parents and teachers always warn us against taking the easy way? If truth was whatever I thought felt good or made sense, I’d park on parkways, drive on driveways, rest in restrooms and turn off the AM radio after noon.

“The Passion of the Christ” is under assault because we don’t like what it says about us as humans. No more, no less.

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Matt Grills is a writer and conservative activist living in Indianapolis, where he works for a nonprofit organization. In 1997, he earned a bachelor's degree in religious studies from Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, Ill. He has written for a handful of Hoosier newspapers and is a member of the Indiana Leadership Forum, a program that encourages emerging community leaders to increase their involvement in the Republican Party.
darthgrills@hotmail.com